


Yarn in the GAR

by Authoranna



Category: Star Wars, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Also fluff, Gen, Knitting, Positive Masculinity, and also an art, angst because clones, look knitting is a passion of mine, soft, tags will be updated as i go as this will probably cover a lot of time, this is in response to a tumblr hc i read
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 07:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26848186
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Authoranna/pseuds/Authoranna
Summary: Ahsoka is cold in space and the men of the 501st teach her to knit. Fluff, angst, feelings about being genetically engineered soldiers.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 65





	Yarn in the GAR

**Author's Note:**

> So this was inspired by [this tumblr post](https://maulusque.tumblr.com/post/184220363775/ok-i-have-a-little-headcanon-thats-been-bugging) and [this art](https://www.instagram.com/p/CF9oZIsgUZN/?igshid=xfdpt8kcah7i).

Ahsoka sat on her bunk, feet tucked under her legs. One thing she had yet to get used to after all these months in space was how cold it was. Her species being evolved for desert climes, it was a slow process of acclimatizing to the vacuum. Her master and the clones didn’t seem to have an issue with the temperature; whether it was the fact the clones had their heavy plastoid armor which was airtight or the fact they were human, Ahsoka hadn’t decided yet.

She pulled one of her blankets from the foot of her bunk to wrap around her shoulders. Her quarters seemed colder than normal today, but that might only be in her mind after returning from Ryloth the night before.

The padawan walked to the temperature display in the corner of the room, shivering when she saw what it said. She tried adjusting the temperature, sticking her hand over the heating element to check it was working, and was met with failure.

After dissecting the thermostat and attempting to diagnose the glitch, she was none the warmer nor the wiser. Sighing in frustration, she activated her comm.

“Maintenance, this is Commander Tano. The heating elements in my room seem to be broken; I tried fixing it myself, but it’s nothing I can diagnose. Is the ship having problems?”

“There’s intermittent electrical glitches in the temperature control board; we’re working on the problem as we can, but your quarters appear to be an isolated incident on your level so we’re focusing on the larger outages. Might I suggest requisitioning another blanket from the quartermaster in the meantime?” The clone who answered her comm replied.

“Thanks for the advice,” she returned, rolling her eyes. Pulling the blanket tighter around her, she walked into the hallway with her datapad. She had reports to write, not to mention reading to do, assigned by Master Kenobi, because Master Skywalker was more of a hands-on master who never gave her reading.

She began reading and pacing the corridor, which thank the Force was empty save for mouse droids that she nearly tripped over each time one crossed her path.

“Commander?” Captain Rex’s voice startled the Togruta, who had become absorbed in her reading. “Needed more room to think?” He joked as he stopped infront of Ahsoka. He had come out of the ‘fresher, hair still slightly damp. His top half was covered only by his blacks with the lower half of his armor on, as most clones did when not on duty.

“My quarters have broken heating elements so I’m out here keeping warm and roasty toasty with the blanket." _Roasty toasty? Really, Ahsoka? What are you, seven?!_

“I’m glad you’re staying... roasty toasty, Commander,” Rex replied, attempting to keep a straight face as he finished his sentence. He failed, however, a smile cracking his serious facade. “If you’d like to sit down to do your reports, my desk is available.”

“That does sound better than pacing for the next two hours,” she answered.

Rex turned around, leading her down the corridor. He put his comm up to his mouth as he walked, whispering something that Ahsoka couldn’t hear or understand.

As the door to Torrent Company slid open a moment later, Jesse slid across the floor to grab something off his footlocker. He froze as Ahsoka and Rex walked into the room, standing at attention as did all of his brothers. He hid his hands behind his back, breaking the perfect stance ingrained in him through years of rigorous training and threats of reconditioning.

After telling everyone to go back to their tasks, Ahsoka looked over at Jesse.

“What do you have there, Jesse?” She asked, perfectly innocent as to what that question could lead to.

Resigned, Jesse pulled his hands from behind his back, showing the Jedi commander the yarn and knitting needles he had been attempting to put away but was too slow.

“Just some recreation, Commander. Just something to pass the time on-ship, you know,” he answered, voice wavering slightly.

All those within the barracks watched in trepidation, waiting for the Kaminiise to come in somehow and drag one or all for reconditioning. It wasn’t something they learned in their flash-training, it wasn’t something useful for battle or sharpening skills, it was individuality and recreation.

“What is it?” Ahsoka reached out hesitantly, not quite touching Jesse’s project, whatever it was. It looked soft, the green yarn turning to orange. She thought she caught a glimpse of pink in the hank, buried deep in it.

“It’s a sock, sir, or the beginning of it anyways. Haven’t been able to get much done on it. It’s called knitting; one of the brothers in a different battalion picked it up while planetside somewhere and a few of us learned it from him.” The five needles clicked together as his hand clenched and unclenched around it.

“Oh. That’s cool! It looks kind of complicated. Why are you knitting socks? Doesn’t the GAR provide socks?”

“Not as good as the ones we can knit; they’re warmer and last longer. Getting holes in our socks during battle just makes it harder to fight well, because blisters and such. Need to be fighting fit for best performance in the field,” he rushed out, trying to justify the skill. _Maybe she wouldn’t tell the Kaminiise, if --._

“Can you teach me?” She bounced onto the balls of her feet as she asked, the blanket dropping off one of her shoulders. She shrugged it back up, waiting.

“Yeah, uh, yes sir.” _Was it an order? She didn’t sound commander-y. No, it was definitely only a request. But, she wanted to learn; she didn’t sound angry._ “Take a seat... commander.”

Ahsoka sat down on the footlocker, Jesse taking a seat at the end of the bed. All eyes were turned towards them, and a few of the more confident brothers reached into their own footlockers to pull out their own sock projects, nervously holding them without starting any work.

Jesse talked through what he had done so far, throwing out words the commander had never heard before such as **purl** or **cast on**. She could feel the pride and also the _fear shame hope_ that Jesse and some of the other clones radiated in the Force, bright shining hope and red fear the most tangible, thick enough she could almost taste them.

“So you just kind of loop and add some more yarn to the loop and move it from one needle to the other?” Ahsoka asked, watching Jesse’s hands as he added another row of stitches. The fifth needle confused her, as it had no stitches on it, but she watched as Jesse moved the yarn from one to the other to another needle, one needle always losing its stitches and becoming the new needle to add yarn to.

Understanding slowly passed onto her face as Jesse explained more, her eyes following the stitches as she visualized how it would look as more was added.

“Can I, can I try?” She asked hesitantly, her fingers twitching as if she held the needles already.

A look flashed on Jesse’s face for a moment, hesitation followed by fear in quick succession.

“Here,” chimed in Coric from across the room, “why don’t we show you how to start one?” His needles were bare, his socks finished the night before and awaiting only the final touches. She missed the relief that Jesse felt at not having to hand over his own socks mid-project.

Ahsoka pivoted on the footlocker, accepting the shards of metal from the sergeant. They were blackish-grey, from a super battle droid, she supposed. How he had shaved them down to uniform sizes, smooth and pointed, was a question she’d ask him later.

Coric picked up the teaching from Jesse, showing her how to cast on. She fumbled at first, stitches twisting as she tried to pick up the four needles together to begin working. The padawan muttered curses as she stabbed herself with one needle or the other, slowly adding stitches.

Half the men in the barracks were watching the lesson surreptitiously, and gave a small cheer when she had finished an entire row of small, slightly uneven stitches. Ahsoka dipped her head in embarrassment, her lekku darkening in the equivalent of a blush, a smile on her face nonetheless.

Everyone went back to their own tasks then, content that their commander was accepting of their hobby. Jesse continued his socks, Ahsoka slowly following along. Rex came over with a chair, bringing his own yarn and sitting next to Ahsoka in the space between the bunks. His socks were further along than Jesse’s, the heel flap just started.

The three sat together working, though it wasn’t really work, Ahsoka quietly asking questions of one clone or the other occasionally about if she was doing it right, how long it takes to make one whole sock, when she could move on to the next part of the sock. Other clones around them, caught in the freetime post-battle guaranteed, quietly knitted and purled, quiet conversations starting. It wasn’t a quietness born of fear of eavesdropping, but of a mood; after battle, with the yarn and their surviving brothers, it was peace after chaos, relief to have survived, and mourning those who hadn’t. Ahsoka felt the Force around them all, warmer than the blanket she had dropped off her shoulders, and carefully sent her own warm contentment into the Force around her, her master questioning but not prying at the emotion he felt from the student.


End file.
